Tag: book

No Photoshop: Capturing a hedgehog’s authentic self for photo-illustrated children’s book

In her new children’s book, The Spike Cream Woods, Ginger looks pretty manicured as she explores the fanciful forest where ice cream grows beneath the flowers, hedges and trees.

No hedgehogs were harmed in the making of this book. She wasn’t drugged. I didn’t teach her how to do tricks — hedgehogs don’t respond to humans like dogs. Also, the photos weren’t manipulated or edited (except for minor things like brightness).

The secret to these fanciful ice cream forest photos was capturing normal hedgehog behavior. Hedgehogs cannot see well. They primarily sense the world through sound and smell. They are naturally shy.

When I set Ginger down in a new environment, she typically freezes for 30 to 60 seconds, much like a shy 2-year-old does. Then, she starts sniffing. She senses her environment for another 30 to 60 seconds before she decides which direction she’ll go. Then, she scurries to the darkest, coziest corner she can find. She is a natural burrower.

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Ginger pristinely sniffs a giant scoop of “Gummy Worm Chip”  ice cream she found in “The Spike Cream Woods.”
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Within seconds, she’s off exploring behind-the-scenes, burrowing in between some treat bags. How’d she get dirty so quickly?!

She loves burrowing in flowers, hedges and leaves — or gummy worm and chocolate chip bags!

For The Spike Cream Woods photo shoot, we took it a set at a time, with burrowing breaks in between. I set up a scene, shot on high speed while she enjoyed sniffing the new environment and then she scurried off the set.

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Ginger takes a burrowing break under a fern while on the set for “The Spike Cream Woods” children’s book.

The photo shoot was special for Ginger — full of enrichment activities she doesn’t get to experience every day.

The secret in capturing the photos was in the speed of my professional camera and experience photographing Ginger. After taking pictures of her for fun for over a year, I had learned quite a bit about her behavior and how long I would have before she would get bored.

The most challenging set to shoot was the one where she was making her special ice cream treat. It was getting late. A storm was coming. There were multiple scenes on the same set with little new stimulation for Ginger. She quickly scurried off the scene several times before I could get a good shot of her absorbed in creating her treat. I placed her back until she clearly gave the message — excuse me, I’m the posh actress here. Missed the shot? Not my problem.

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Ginger looks like she is stirring her ice cream dish here but she is really trying to burrow under the giant porcupine quill.

So, I improvised my vision of what the photos might look like. I had captured several shots of Ginger playing under the porcupine quill. When I looked closely, I realized she looked like she was stirring the special ice cream treat she was creating. Perfect. I couldn’t have planned that.

Ginger made this book as much as I did. I wrote the storyline before I took the photos, but Ginger brought it to life.

I photographed her real self — shy, curious, scurrying, burrowing. She doesn’t really live in The Spike Cream Woods, but she really did visit.

Enjoy her adventure with a child, grandchild, niece or nephew by clicking this link. 

Sara Marie Moore is author and photographer of “The Spike Cream Woods,” a photo-illustrated children’s book featuring her pet hedgehog Ginger in a fanciful ice cream forest. 

 

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On hedgehog cysts and finding an exotic vet

Ginger finally found a vet clinic that really gets hedgehogs.

When we walked into Cedar Pet Clinic in Lake Elmo, just outside St. Paul, Minnesota, I immediately noticed hedgehogs were included in picture frames on the walls.

It put me at ease a little bit considering I’d already been to two vet clinics that said they treat hedgehogs but, in reality, the vets didn’t know much about them. The first couldn’t even explain what hedgehogs should eat. The second was kind enough to refer me to Cedar Pet Clinic for the future.

Ginger had a small, blackish lump on her tummy. When we went into the exam room to wait for the vet, I saw the staff had set out a hedgehog fleece for her on the exam table. Hedgehogs love warm fleece material. She scurried around on the exam table while we waited for the vet.

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Ginger makes herself at home on the exam table at Cedar Pet Clinic in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.

When Dr. Charles Cosimini walked in, he was wearing a hedgehog tie! I told him all about Ginger’s lump and he gave me a cost for testing the lump before she went to the lab.

Thankfully, it was just a cyst, which completely drained away. However, Dr. Chuck saw a few round cells under the microscope, which is unusual for a cyst. They could be normal white blood cells that happened to be in the sample or an indication of a possible pre-malignant condition. We’ll have to keep an eye on the area.

It’s normal for cysts to regrow and they are not a problem unless they become infected or so large they interfere with activity. If Ginger’s cyst grows back, I will have it retested to confirm it is still noncancerous and has not turned into a tumor, considering her test results.

Unfortunately, cancer is common in hedgehogs. But I’m going for six years with Ginger, which is about 90 human years. Ginger is 2, or 30 in human years, right now. Most pet hedgehogs live for four to six years.

As Ginger came out from under her anesthesia, Dr. Chuck mentioned he had written a children’s book about his work with exotic pets: “A Hedgehog with a Sneeze.” He was excited to hear that Ginger is the star of my children’s book “The Spike Cream Woods.”

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Ginger comes out from under anesthesia after her lump was examined by her new vet Dr. Chuck, wearing a hedgehog tie with illustrations from his book “A Hedgehog with a Sneeze.”

I bought a copy of “A Hedgehog with a Sneeze” at the front desk. It tells silly stories of several exotic animals going to the vet. I found it clever that the hedgehog’s story addressed a real health issue that hedgehogs face — homes that are too chilly.

You can keep your hedgehog’s immune system in tip-top shape by ensuring your hedgehog’s room is kept at least at 72 degrees Fahrenheit. If a hedgehog’s environment gets too chilly, they will attempt to hibernate.

Their body temperature begins to drop and they stay tightly rolled in a ball. African pygmy hedgehogs are not supposed to hibernate and they can die if not warmed up.
If your hedgehog attempts to hibernate, warm them up slowly by microwaving their favorite blanket and holding them close to your body in it. While hedgehogs can come out of hibernation attempts, it weakens their immune system.

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Ginger reads “A Hedgehog with a Sneeze” by Dr. Chuck.

Ginger attempted to hibernate this winter during Minnesota’s extreme temperatures when our heat turned up to max wasn’t enough. My husband Andrew and I invested in a new space heater to keep Ginger extra warm.

The best thing you can do for your hedgehog’s health and longevity is to keep them toasty warm.

Sara Marie Moore is author and photographer of “The Spike Cream Woods,” a photo-illustrated children’s book featuring her pet hedgehog Ginger in a fanciful ice cream forest. 

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Quill paradise: Thailand’s hedgehog cafe

My husband and I recently had the opportunity to travel to Chiang Mai, Thailand. One of the city’s hidden tourist gems is Harinezumi Hedgehog Cafe.

Being the hedgehog fanatic I am, we booked a guest house just a block or two from the cafe so we could visit several times during our week’s stay in the heart of the city.

The cafe is managed by a local Thai, but is part of a hedgehog cafe chain from Japan, where animal and pet cafes have soared in popularity in recent years.

We were early to the cafe the morning after we arrived and peered through the windows at hedgehogs in glass cages next to a counter where you could sit and eat next to them. I was stunned because I saw peeking through the glass what looked like Ginger‘s Siamese twin!

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This cutie (Ginger’s Siamese twin?!) drew passersby into the cafe.

We were greeted by cheerful employees who obviously dearly love their hedgehogs. You can either order a drink or waffle and sit and watch the hedgehogs in their cages or pay a little extra to enjoy your drink and waffle and interact with a hedgehog.

We paid 300 Baht (about $10 USD) for the two-person deal: two drinks, two waffles and two hedgehogs would come out from the back room to play with us.

While we waited for our food, the servers seated us at a table where we could play with the hedgehogs they brought out from their back room. They brought out mealworms we could feed them, gloves if we thought their quills were a bit poky and there was hand sanitizer at the table to wash your hands before eating.

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This is Harry, a prized hedgehog at the cafe. He might be a bit overweight, but he was friendly.

When they brought out our food, they moved us to the counter where we could watch the hedgehogs in cages at the front of the cafe scurry or sleep while we ate scrumptious waffles with fruit and ice cream.

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The food was amazing – a variety of waffle flavors and toppings, with ice cream! And lots of flavorful drink options….

When we were finished, we went back to playing with our hedgehog playmates while we finished sipping our drinks. I ordered Thai tea and my husband had coffee.

Since we were the only early birds that morning, the manager of the shop brought out some of her other hedgehogs for us to see.

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The hedgehog cafe has about 30 hedgehogs they rotate from the cafe to their homes in the back of the building where they can rest. 

She said the shop has about 30 hedgehogs in the back. They take turns interacting with humans. I found the hedgehogs to be quite socialized and willing to interact with humans, as far as hedgehogs are concerned. It seemed like they had gotten used to trusting humans strangers as long as their keepers were around to gently reassure them and give them a break when they needed it.

The shop also has guinea pigs that you can interact with. My husband Andrew prefers guinea pigs over hedgehogs, so he fed them some grass for breakfast.

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You can also choose to interact with a fluffy guinea pig if quills aren’t your thing.

We visited the hedgehog cafe later in the week as well, both in the evening and afternoon, since hedgehogs are nocturnal. The cafe was busiest in the afternoon. We discovered that we could eat our waffles next to our hedgehog playmate if we requested it. Separating food and hedgehog interaction time appeared to be a default measure to help western tourists, who are not used to animal cafes, be at ease. Contrary to popular belief spread by an overprotective CDC in the U.S., hedgehogs rarely carry salmonella and animal cafes take precautions to keep their animals from contracting salmonella, just as western petting zoos do.

If you ever get the chance to visit, I would recommend it. The cafe was clean, the hedgehogs were well-loved and customers were given options as to how they would like to enjoy the hedgehogs and their food.

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This is almost paradise – Thai tea with a hedgehog!

The cafe is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. year-round; you should check their website for updated information: http://harinezumi-cafe-chiangmai.com/. By the way, harinezumi is Japanese for hedgehog.

Sara Marie Moore is author and photographer of “The Spike Cream Woods,” a photo-illustrated children’s book featuring her pet hedgehog Ginger in a fanciful ice cream forest. 

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Birthday blessing: Miraculous appearing of a pet hedgehog

On my prayer list for August 2016 is listed a petition for a miraculous appearing of a pet hedgehog. It may have been a bit facetious, but God was listening.

About a month later, I was praying about something else and randomly opened my Bible. My eyes landed on Isaiah 14:23: “I will make it a possession of the hedgehog….” declares the Lord of hosts.” (ESV)

God was responding to my prayer for a pet hedgehog! Never mind that the context of the passage was about God bringing justice to those who had been mistreated by making their attacker’s land desolate and filled with hedgehogs, a desert creature. He was bringing His Word to life in response to my childlike prayer.

I started saving and researching hedgehog breeders. The only thing was, I really wanted a blonde girl hedgehog. I’d had a traditional salt-and-pepper (white with black bands) boy hedgehog as a child and wanted to mix it up. Blonde hedgehogs are not albinos; their quills are white with cinnamon and ginger colored banding due to a recessive gene, just like blonde-haired people.

I decided to sign up with a breeder that would put me on a waiting list for the next blonde girl born. I inquired with Otsego Hedgehogs in Minnesota a few days before my birthday in January 2017. I got on the waiting list a few days after my birthday. I knew it could be months since they couldn’t guarantee when another blonde girl would be born. Also, quill color and sex are not determined until the baby hedgehogs are a few weeks old.

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Ginger’s litter, February 2017.

But a couple weeks later the breeder sent me a text saying that it appears there were two blonde hedgehogs born in a litter of four January 29.

That was my birthday!

A week later, she let me know they were girls. I picked up my Ginger a few weeks later, a tiny prickly ball of a miracle.

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Ginger on her first day home, March 2017.

The playful way that God answered my childlike prayer for a miraculous appearing of a pet hedgehog is something that reminds me that He is listening when I am waiting for answers to more difficult things.

He might not always answer our prayers in the way or the timing that we would like, but we can be sure He is listening and cares about us in a way that we can’t fully comprehend.

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Ginger, a tiny miracle.

Sara Marie Moore is author and photographer of “The Spike Cream Woods,” a photo-illustrated children’s book featuring her pet hedgehog Ginger in a fanciful ice cream forest. 

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